Recent content by Gorgon Zee

I think Tolkien rewards a higher level of prep. That has been my experience of running The One Ring -- and one of my players is a noted TTRPG writer who ALSO runs a high-prep TOR game. Given that Tolkien's appeal as a book is the depth and thought that went into his world, I am not surprised...

And burn it. The acronym to remember is "Give to the full BiGSBy": Behead it Garlic It Stake it Burn it

Looking backwards 30 years ago and comparing it to today’s experience of how I play, and using that to extrapolate to the future, here’s the changes I like and possible ways to continue that trend: Prettier, better edited and laid out books. In the future, online resources so I could say “how...

I’ve run romance in quite a few games. PENDRAGON has a number of systems devoted to it. There’s a “fine amor” version that comes into play midway through the Great Pendragon Campaign, in which your love has a resistance that needs to be worn down by undergoing trials for the romance to...

[double post; deleted]

I’m with @Umbran in not seeing that strong tropes limits innovation, or vice versa. Numenéra, for example, has very strong tropes, but has a relatively innovative resolution system where “spending” core stats affects the action being taken. Plus a few other ones. For me, there are systems I am...

Whereas I have played 3 year-long+ campaigns with Numenéra, and maybe 5 with 13th Age; and I have only played maybe 5 total games with 5e. It might be harder to find casual players, but my experience has been that the players are more committed. YMMV

While this is true, it’s irrelevant. It was BRANDED as Baldur’s Gate. I bought the game early because it was Baldurs Gate and I had played the previous games and liked the BG IP. The fact it used D&D 5e rules was not relevant to me. I wanted to visit that specific world.

I do have a strong preference for systems that are either strongly narrative or strongly gamist. In a strongly narrative system, you don't make as many rolls, so it makes more sense for the rolls to take more thought to adjudicate and to work out the outcome. In a gamist system you are often...

I think you may have missed the fact that it's not required that you narrate each special success. You can always pick a canned option like "more damage". My players are about 50-50 in whether they'll narrate stuff or just cause more damage. It really isn't a burden.

It's actually even a bit nicer. In combat you can do other things with the special successes -- like knock opponents away, make a killing blow more likely, and so on. But if you are tired or just want to play fast, there's always the simple default of more damage. So it allows for more narrative...

To be fair, you do have far less ability to bring in new, cool mechanics or weird monsters -- it is definitely a more focused campaign. So you do need players and a GM who are happy with a game where the types of encounter are fairly limited, and the fun is in how your knight feels and changes...

I should have been more precise. In Pendragon it's technically called 'amor' and is a bit different from our modern take. In game terms, you get a passion of Amor (Gwen) and it has a level, much like Hywel's Cruel Trait can influence how you behave. You can easily be a little bit in love with...

Well, like everything it depends on the game you are running. I have been running THE GREAT PENDRAGOIN CAMPAIGN for 2+ years now, and this kind of thing is a major part of the game and has solid backing both mechanically and in the fictional setting. As an example, when you first see Guinevere...

Yes, very much so. Role players are varied and fun creatures — sometimes I like to optimize a killer D&D4E bard/rogue/assassin Drow who creates shadows, teleports in and murders enemies with a carefully chosen set of feats and powers, and sometimes I like to play a kid on a bike who has a crush...